Contents

Tornay House, Shore Place, London E9, which includes the childhood home of Don Black

Black was born Donald Blackstone in London, England,[3][4] the youngest of five children of Russian Jewish immigrants Morris and Betsy (née Kersh) Blackstone.[5]
His father worked as a garment presser and his mother in a clothes shop[6]
and during his childhood the family lived in a council flat in Tornay House, Shore Place, South Hackney.[7] He attended Cassland Road School[6] and enjoyed visits to the Hackney Empire, which was then a music hall and to the cinema to watch James Cagney films.[8][9]

He was personal manager to the singer Matt Monro for many years and also provided songs for him (usually writing English language lyrics to continental songs).[11] These included "Walk Away" (music: Udo Jürgens) and "For Mamma" (music: Charles Aznavour).[5]

In addition, Black teamed with Charles Strouse on the songs "Growing Up Isn't Easy" and "Anything Can Happen On Halloween" for the 1986 HBO film The Worst Witch, based on the children's book by Jill Murphy.

Following the death of BBC radio legend David Jacobs, in 2013, Black started to present the late-night slot vacated by Jacobs, on Sunday nights at 11pm, on BBC Radio 2.[16] During his hour-long show, he features classic songs and songwriters of the 20th century, pays a weekly tribute to Matt Monro, whom he managed for many years, and regales the listeners with a good slice of his name-dropping stories with the stars. His show runs for 13 weeks at a time, usually from June to August, and again from December to February. For the other 26 weeks, ex-BBC newsreader Moira Stuart presents her late night selection of jazz standards.[16]

In 1993, Play It Again released Born Free – The Don Black Songbook, which remains the only album to date which consists solely of songs co-written by the lyricist.[17]

In 2007, Black was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[18] That same year, Black was credited on "Sexy Lady", the 2007 debut single and hit for rapper Yung Berg, which sampled the Black-Barry theme for Diamonds Are Forever.

^The Guinness encyclopedia of popular music - Volume 1 - Page 426 1561591769
Colin Larkin - 1995 "renewed his partnership with Geoff Stephens for a concept album of a 'revuesical' entitled Off The Wall, the story of 'six characters determined ..."